Sentience - Stories of the New Generation
by TGYMK
Summary: Sentience. What is sentience? "Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or to experience subjectivity." We come now to experience the adventure of this word, sentience, visiting the Champions which have been given such a wondrous gift; but just what do each of them choose to do with it? Cope. Strife. Pain. Endurance. Love. They choose their path, but did not choose to be.


_What is "sentience"?_

_"Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or to experience subjectivity. Eighteenth-century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think (reason) from the ability to feel (sentience). In modern Western philosophy, sentience is the ability to experience sensations (known in philosophy of mind as "qualia"). For Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care. The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, which is held to entail certain rights." - Multiple sources, Wikipedia_

Twitch. Maokai. Rammus. Zac.  
"What will you do with your gift?"

**Twitch**  
_Part One_

Multiple sounds of thickened, polluted drippings haunted the atmosphere and pierced the air of its hushed tones in a consistent tempo. Drip. Drip. Drop. One drop more vile and disgusting than the last, only to add to a larger body of fluid coating the filth-stained floors. What was contained in this flow of liquid was unspeakable; not because of the potential sickening thoughts planted in the minds of the curious, but the sheer volume of chemicals and concoctions mixed with debris able to be concieved in the minds of the creative. What hazardous creations combined and seeped into this environment would only serve well in ravaging, destroying and reforming it into one of a pool of survival, and a world of theory and fantasizing gone wrong; yet this place was simply called a "sewer" in the eyes of the Zaunite.

The disgusting sound of drippings could only be bested by the stench of foul and dated odors, their power reaching into the depths of the sewer's pipelines to plague what lay within. The origin of these smells was not the chemical-ruined fluids themselves, but the result of the liquids and their destruction. As one would trek deeper past the catacombs of filth, carcasses of supposed rodents could easily be seen carried downstream or lining the halls of the sewer, some half-dead of drowning in dangerous chemicals or starved in favor of their brethren's survival, others expired for months to years at a time; even the youngling rats would not survive for more than a few days to a few months time, the more fortunate thriving on the feast of its own species. There was to be not a sound without death's caress in this world, though they knew not of this place's demands and sacrifices until their life's reckoning.

Without a care of their land's true intent, the rodent nation continued to struggle and survive through torment, making up for their rapid loss of lives with the birth of the new, each rat youngling produced more resistant to their environment than the last. Their brothers and sisters spread rapidly, fanning out to the outside world to gather and scavenge for what they could, only to return to a world set against them if they had survived the onslaught of the humans' dislikes above the sewer. Each layer of the Earth seemed to want them dead; yet they lived without a sought reason. Only to live. Survive. Perhaps subconsciously prolonging the species as long as it could exist. Their minds could not and would not know otherwise in their generation; but a single spark would ignite the passionate flames of the next.

Against all odds a single being was lain amongst the river of dangerous mixed substances, the rodent forms around it desperate to even take one breath as they were thrown downstream to their ends, some previously expired rats crashing into the figure in the way. Those that were alive simply gave the being a casual look, sniff and touch, using all of their senses to examine it briefly before moving on to their days of strife with life itself. This being was one multiple times the size of its surrounding fellows, having nothing in common with them at first sight-possibly even being a lost human child-yet was here for a purpose. Its arms and lower body-a blue-green furred mess of shaggy hair and unattended tangles clinging to them-were nearly swallowed up by the filth and chemical plagued water below, its body shaking as if only barely held up. A thick coat of fur hid the being's body from view, a large, furred ball of an unknown entity simply waiting on its hands and knees. Above those limbs and past its hunched upper body a jagged row of unkept teeth braced one for what this form truly was; the combination of its rodent-like ears, stubby appendages and a barrage of smells originating from the essence of sewer fluids showing that it was not truly far in similarities to the creatures around it; it was, in fact, a humongous form of the rodent species.

Every second passed by slowly from the start of its awakening; a process was formed for each.  
Stare. Ponder. Fear. Forget. Repeatedly its mind was sent time and time again into madness.  
This rat was a completely new and supernatural event to the eye; it was -sentient-.  
Yet knew nothing of it.

Its brethren did not care; they didn't bother to ask why this specific rat had grown so exponentionally, or how they could achieve this form for themselves, and certainly not why they should trust the titan in their presence when the rat itself had grown similarly to their superiors past the great sewer walls. The smaller forms simply gave it an unknowing nod or two, gaining the beast's essence of scent and moving along. The larger being's eyes could only stare down into the sewer water at its own reflection, eventually slowly sliding its eye sockets to watch its own species pass him by; and yet he was still silent. Still unmoving. It had to change.

One leg, then the other. An arm. A slight arch of the back. This "beast" tried every form of moving its old body, but the new just didn't seem to work the same. Rats did not have long arms or legs, and certainly could not move on just two of its limbs very flexibly; yet in mere moments, the oversized rat found itself attempting to -stand-. Its mind was again sent reeling at the thought of it all, this time along with his body as well, losing the unfathomable balance between the legs and upper body. Somehow the rat maintained a standing posture, no matter the sloppiness of it with its hunched form, or the constant shaking in fear that it could not control. Just looking down once again made it clear of his new height, being able to see and feel its entire upper body out of the murky water, and examine the titan's own form. There was clear evidence of male origin below, but to him it represented nothing but the ways of reproduction, gender aside.

Suddenly, a sound. To his surprise, it wasn't a squeak; it was somewhat of a stifled grunt! But what did this mean? This new sound nearly frightened him to death, having been thrown into his new form so quickly already. The rat tried again to produce the sound, doing so effortlessly over time, and even calling out to his brethren with it. No response. They never did respond well to sounds, but to hear this new approach instead of a mere squeal would be noticed even less. The larger rat began to whine and whimper, each new sound he repeated in hopes that they would realize how different he was and attempt to "help". But nothing. Something had to work to have them NOTICE him at least!? Nevermind that he did not know why he sought attention, but he wanted it desperately in order to figure all of this out!

Two arms weakly moved and strained their muscles, reaching downward towards the ground where one of his brethren rats had been eating a rotten apple. The humongous rat had not a clue of how he was doing so, or what he would do once he'd reached this fellow, but without realizing what he had done the other rodent was touching his hand. Unfortunately for the both of them, this shaggy beast of a rat did not have full control over himself just yet, slamming his hand down onto the smaller rat and crushing it unknowingly. He heard a faint squeal underneath and jerked, believing it came from himself yet again; only to find, as he removed the hand on reaction, the rat below had been culled by his own innocent hands and sent to death prematurely. He didn't know why it happened, and somehow he knew what DID. Panicking, the being above lowered his head down and poked at it with its bulged and swollen nose, an instinct he thankfully already knew, and examined the body with an attempt to lift and urge it to move. Nothing.

He didn't truly care. Yet he knew what he had done. Not of how he did it. The others would carelessly move on. Why couldn't he without the thought of reason?

Locomotion struck his legs as if running from a predator. Filthy, poisoned water splashed about as he tripped over himself multiple times, attempting to go somewhere or anywhere to figure all of this out. He stumbled over debris and trash lining the halls and the bodies of his former brethren, unable to fathom just what to do in this situation. His instincts never warranted this. He then learned to shout and scream such grunts, sending echoes throughout the sewer home without a word back from anyone else inside. Soon enough the beast reached one point of entry into the sewer and attempted to shove himself through it, only to groan loudly in pain as his face slammed into the bars, his nose the only part of him able to fit through it now; yet he continued trying desperately as if he were like his smaller brothers. Scratching and scritching at the bars to try and force them to move, allow him entry, do what he KNEW to do already. A fruitless effort.

Lost and confused beyond what thoughts he was able to percieve, the rat dragged himself along the walls as if he were dizzied and ill, thrown from one end of the sewer to the next. His body would never fit into one of its holes and entryways ever again, and that was one thought he actually understood in time. Just one of the many that would haunt him, a spiral of lingering thoughts only adding to the massive pile in the beast's grown brain that he could not handle. It was all too much. It was just too much!

Water splashed out above him and into his face, having found himself suddenly lying on the ground instead of dragging himself about. The walls around him were missing and the air was much less thick, able to smell something other than trash and foul odors rising from the bodies of the dead; there was an environment other than his home. A large hole in this junction of the sewer made itself well apparent, bricks and concrete laid about with not a care for what remained. His eyes couldn't believe what he saw, and yet he was not sure of why he needed to. Only that his body would impulsively throw itself into the opening, moving past the walls of the sewer and climbing the stained dirt road leading away from it, one limb at a time. There was to be no explanation for what this form was, or how it came to be; but he, like his lesser brethren, could only move forward for now. For their cause, or for his own; into the outside world of the Humans.

[_A note to the reader; any beings not included in the opening paragraph were either not made by man in some way, or their origins of creation are not known. Ex. Zyra's origins are unknown, we simply know that she was "created".]_


End file.
